1st Lt. Chris Givens flips a tractor tire at Converse North Park as he prepares for his entry into the June 27 "Death Race" in Vermont.

1st Lt. Chris Givens flips a tractor tire at Converse North Park as he prepares for his entry into the June 27 "Death Race" in Vermont.

Photo: Jeff B. Flinn / Northeast Herald

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Chris Givens traverses an obstacle with a car tire on his shoulder, which he had to carry for more than four hours during the grueling Hurricane Heat race in April.

Chris Givens traverses an obstacle with a car tire on his shoulder, which he had to carry for more than four hours during the grueling Hurricane Heat race in April.

Photo: Courtesy Photo

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The Death Race

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Chris Givens flips tractor tires. He runs grueling stretches of roadway while wearing an elevation mask. He chops wood, does push-ups, works out for three to four hours at a time — all to prepare for a race he knows nothing about.

Givens, 29, is one of 300 entrants in the upcoming 2014 Spartan Death Race — a punishing, unforgiving, soul-crushing 40-mile trek into ... well, no one knows, until they show up.

“You don't know exactly how to prepare for it,” Givens said. “They don't tell you what you are going to have to do until you get there. But that's the beauty of it. It tests your physical, mental and emotional stamina, all at the same time.”

The Spartan Death Race is the creation of two men, Joe DeSena and Andy Weinberg, veterans of Iditarod, marathons, triathlons and septuple Ironmen races.

“These guys are hardcore. The whole point of the (Death Race) is that they want to hang out with people who are like-minded — and they just want to see who can hack it,” Givens said.

Very few can. Only about 10-15 percent of the 300 — “a very high attrition rate” — who signed up for 2013's Death Race actually finished.

Givens describes it as “a 24- hour to 72-hour 'suffer-fest' with no determined start time. You don't know the finish line. You don't know the task or the obstacles involved,” he said. “You're given a list of items to bring, and told when and where to show up.”

Each Death Race is themed, with this year's being “Year of the Explorer.” Givens said he finds that intriguing.

“You need to know land navigation, be familiar with Sir Edmond Hillary, Lewis and Clark and their adventures, and have that explorer-type mentality to go out there are do what they did,” he said, “explore the unknown.”

This Converse resident, an Army first lieutenant who arrived at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston 18 months ago, is a married father of two who understands the concept of pushing yourself to the brink. He said he first heard about it in 2012 about the time he did his first Spartan Race.

More recently, Givens took part in what is known as a Hurricane Heat,” a prerequite or precursor to participation in the Death Race. Similar in nature to the Death Race, the Hurricane Heat tests one's stamina and mental capacity for enduring pain over a 12-hour time frame.

Givens attended the April 6-7 Hurricane Heat in Las Vegas — far from the glitz and glamor of The Strip and the casinos. “We were in the hot Vegas sun and sand,” Givens said. “It was torture. Of the 33 that started, only 19 finished.”

Just how torturous was the event? The day started with a pedestrian 100 “burpees,” which requires the individual to drop to the ground in a squat, kick their legs out almost in a sit-up postion, bring the legs back under the body, and then return to a standing position.

The entrants then duck-walked up a hill of sand just in time “to see the sun rise,” Givens said.

After that, there was a “Tunnel Of Love” that was timed and required racers to crawl through the sand underneath the bodies of other racers, adding one more body to the front of the line. The person at the end then crawled through the tunnel, adding one more person to the front. That went on for over 200 yards.

Entrants then rolled for 50 yards in the sand, had to do “the fireman carry” with a fellow racer — carrying them on their back — for 200 yards, then had to carry people over walls 4, 6 and 8 feet high.

Each entrant had to execute a rope climb, scooting up a 15-to-20-foot length of rope in order to ring a bell at the top. Then came more burpees, more squats, and more exercises in the Nevada sand.

And that was just the first hour of a 12-hour test.

Racers encountered more extreme tests — swimming into a “dunk wall,” a deep pit of water with a wall down the center, forcing the swimmer to go deep to reach the other side. Racers emerged from the water, only to have to perform another 50-yard roll in the now-hot sand.

They then teamed and carried logs 10 feet long and 2 feet wide, for a quarter of a mile, switching off leader and follower over and over and over, until the log was moved the required distance.

“That's when our 12-hour day really picked up,' Given said.

Next, each entrant had to go pick up a tire and carry it back to the starting line. Tires ranged from motorcycle to car to SUV to tire trucks. These tires would become the racers' best friends — or worst enemies, depending on the mindset — for the next four hours.

Climb a wall? Carry the tire with you. Go under the dunk wall? Take the tire with you. Navigate the sprinter course? The tire goes with you.

“For the whole 9½-mile course, you had to bring the tire with you, over all obstacles,” he said. “And you had to complete the course in four hours.”

That was the point where the Hurricane Heat lost most of its competitors, he said. Givens finished the obstacle course in 3½ hours, before embarking on the final four hours of the day's phsyical tests.

He explained that he expects plenty of the same mental and physical tests when he makes the June 27 venture to Pittsville, Vermont, for this year's Death Race.

“I have no idea what to expect,” he said. “But I'm determined to be one of the 10 to 15 percent left standing.”